Just as Henry Ford’s infamous 1908 Model T line-up was solely available in Black, the newly updated 2021 Toyota Hiace light commercial van range will be solely available in French Vanilla and only with a 2.8-litre turbodiesel engine.
Toyota Australia says the overwhelming customer demand for the turbodiesel engine in the Hiace range means it has dropped the option of the previous 3.5-litre V6 petrol engine.
It says the updates for the Hiace van, Hiace commuter bus and Granvia wagon, bring added technology and comfort and convenience features while offering a streamlined buyer choice.
Headlining the model updates, available from September, is the addition of new safety and security technology with the fitment of Toyota Connected Services to all models.
Inside, all three models benefit from upgraded features with Granvia customers treated to a higher level of luxury with rear privacy glass and carpeted front floor mats added as standard.
For Hiace a large centre console box has been added to store essential business paperwork while Commuter GL grades gain an LED lamp inside the box to aid vision, as well as upgraded USB charging ports.
The added features adopted for Hiace come with price increases of just $990 across the range while upgraded Granvia prices rise by less than 2%.
The addition of Toyota Connected Services affords greater peace of mind for owners with the system able to automatically generate an emergency call to Toyota’s 24/7 Emergency Call Centre and relay the location of the vehicle in the event of a collision that requires intervention, or if an airbag deploys.
Occupants can also manually trigger an emergency call to the call centre via an SOS button, allowing them to determine the vehicle’s location and coordinate with emergency services.
If the vehicle is reported stolen, Toyota Connected Services can assist authorities to help track the vehicle’s location via the stolen vehicle tracking (SVT) service.
The Hiace has long been the king of the 2.5-3.5 tonne van segment with sales this year increasing by 51.9% This has been further enhanced with the Hiace gaining a centre console storage box as standard, replacing the existing console tray.
Included in the new storage box is a removable in-box tray, an A4-sized binder rack, and a moveable partition at the rear of the box that can be used as a cupholder.
Other range-wide standard equipment additions include front all-weather floor mats and an additional low-profile roof-mounted antenna.
In addition to the rear privacy glass and front carpet floor mats, the Granvia features have been further boosted by the fitment of an additional low-profile antenna and six rear USB Type C outlets, replacing the Type A units.
All versions of the Hiace and Granvia are now powered by Toyota’s 2.8-litre turbodiesel four-cylinder engine, mated to an automatic transmission, with a six-speed manual gearbox also offered on HiAce LWB van.
The turbodiesel engine develops 130kW/450Nm when teamed with the six-speed automatic, with 420Nm of torque for the manual variant. In the HiAce Commuter, the turbodiesel engine produces maximum outputs of 120kW of power and 420Nm of torque.
The Hiace and Granvia are covered by the five-year Toyota Warranty Advantage6 and seven-year Toyota Warranty Advantage Extended Engine and Driveline7.
Toyota Hiace pricing
| LWB Van manual | $44,230 |
| LWB Van automatic | $46,230 |
| LWB Van 4-door automatic | $46,230 |
| LWB GL Van automatic | $47,230 |
| LWB Crew Van automatic | $49,230 |
| SLWB Van automatic | $54,230 |
| SLWB GL Van automatic | $55,230 |
| SLWB Commuter Bus automatic | $69,230 |
| SLWB Commuter GL Bus automatic | $72,230 |
Toyota Granvia pricing
| 6-seater | $65,150 |
| 8-seater | $67,150 |
| VX 6-seater | $76,650 |
| VX 8-seater | $76,650 |
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